Sunday, July 6, 2008

For $100, the reason construction hasn't begun on a building."What is a site problem?"Correct!!

For $200, why little Suzie can't see the blackboard in her classroom."What are sight problems?"Correct!!

For $300, it is why that web-page just won't load."What are site problems?"You are on a roll!!

And for $400, the probable cause of those floopy blood sugar readings in mylast post?(can you see where this is going?) "WHAT IS A SITE PROBLEM'?CORRECT!!!

That's right. When I changed my infusion set on Thursday afternoon, I discovered what I think was the problem. As a new pumper, I'm still very much in the learning phase, but it was quite obvious something was wrong. I snapped a picture, but I'm not sure how much you can see.

If you look closely, above the red mark where the cannula was there is a small blister type thingie. I'm not sure if it had insulin or puss (ick) or just air inside, but I've never seen anything like that before when I remove a site. So, along with the dozens of other reasons my blood sugars may have been "off", we can add this one.

For now, I'll just focus on the wise words of my new blog-friend and "give myself a break". Things won't ever be perfect all the time, so we just do what we can and move forward.

4 comments:

Ugh! Site problems drive me crazy! I use the Sure-Ts which you can actually move and re-insert if you think you are having a site problem. I was high after breakfast the other day and I knew exactly how many carbs I had so I figured it had to be a site problem. In the midst of peeling off the adhesive I noticed a huge air bubble in the tubing!! An extra poke for nothing!!

As a new pumper you definitely need to give yourself a break and just take it day by day. Even the veterans need to do that! :D

This happenened to me a few weeks ago! It was my fault, though, bc I left my site in too long...sometimes I think the pump is a hard way to manage diabetes because you are dealing with a lot more variables. I know how frustrated I was when I first went on my pump with all of the new ways you had to think about things.

Not always a "bad" thing or something to worry about. If you are concerned, definitely let your Endo know. You will notice many different "reactions" on your skin since you only recently started using a pump.

They recommend changing the site every 3 days? When I first started 3 years ago, 48 hours into my site I would start getting itchy. 3 years later and I can push it to 5 days, yeah yeah Doc, that's what you do when you don't have insurance. (he yelled at me, well, after he did a double take of "excuse me, you do What?!")

You will learn and grow with the changes. For the better though, remember that. There is a good level of fear then there is awareness. You are in the beginning stages of all of this, hence the fear and panic. It will get better and your life will be easier/smoother once it is more awareness then anything else.

I Am . . .

Karen Graffeo

I'm a Knitter living with Type 1 Diabetes. I'm not a medical professional nor am I giving medical advice - I'm just a girl sharing my personal thoughts and experiences with diabetes. I live in New England with my wonderful husband, my adorable cat, and lots and lots of yarn.